


history and the reactions they come with

by breadedwasabi



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, i don't know how to use tags, it reminds me of tumblr, librarian!au, meanie, my history looks sketchy, or more, send help, the tags are cool, took me 3 days, welcomes self back to writing, what is the concept of time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-13
Updated: 2019-05-13
Packaged: 2020-03-02 15:47:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18814027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/breadedwasabi/pseuds/breadedwasabi
Summary: the smell of old books and of sweet nectar are two of wonwoo's favorite smells





	history and the reactions they come with

**Author's Note:**

> enjoy @ angelica

wonwoo has a system, a well-known system, really, and it's the "a place for everything, and everything in its place" kind of system. he lives by it and breathes it. it doesn't necessarily mean he is living on a strict schedule, but he has and  _should_ have everything scheduled.

wasting time? no thank you.

the one time wonwoo couldn't follow one of his schedules, his friends barely got to talk to him.

he has too much on his plate and having everything, nicely scheduled, organized, and neat, is his way of coping up with stress.

he is vice president of their reading club, a member of an organization made for students under his program, a constant candidate for the bi-annual campus-wide quiz bee, the eldest brother of three, a best friend of three equality talented yet remarkably stupid boys, and the campus librarian.

one would think the main office is the heart of every school, not in his. their campus library is the biggest and fanciest building on sight. golden letters strewn on top of sliding doors indicate that that place is where the books are being sheltered, safe from rain, snow, and dust.

and this is where wonwoo's sanctuary is.

on a regular basis, wonwoo, will just, not, stop, talking. whether it's about this one polymeric material with oddly specific optical properties, or that very fascinating lecture about statics of rigid bodies, or the respective law article for engineers, and oh! that really soft-spoken professor's teachings on the repercussions of irreversibility.

but here in the library, where it's most definitely against the rule to speak too loudly, wonwoo is hushed.

wonwoo likes systems and rules.

it keeps him from falling apart.

  
\---

  
jeon wonwoo is in his second year of college when he realized he's made a mistake. a mistake grave enough for him to be held back four more months in college.

there goes his perfectly laid out plan.

he was irreversible, he had to rethink, reschedule, move vacations and outings, move (and possibly cancel) further drinking nights. he needed to plan everything out.

his friends quickly realized it wasn't as simple as not passing when seungkwan barely got a smile from his body gag over coffee and frappes. wonwoo just kept swirling his matcha green tea frappucino (with extra chocolate bits and a pump of peppermint) between his fingers, his red velvet cake slice barely touched on the side. the four friends stayed silent while they watched wonwoo implode.

  
\---

  
it took wonwoo approximately four days to get his feet back on the ground. the next semester was not going to enroll itself. he huffed as he sat up on the bed and rolled his head back, letting out another sigh that's been buried deep inside his chest.

  
\---

  
it's the last semester of the third year when wonwoo notices a new face, a new smell, a new silhouette walking in his pristine library halls. the smell of peach honey and with an undertone of heavy, forgotten books rattled his senses. this was a new scent, someone he hasn't seen before. and that's saying a lot since he has been in the library since the last semester of first year.

he knows the library-goers by heart and soul and he can pick out ones in a crowd like it's his special skill. like that of a farmer who knows a good watermelon when he sees it.

closing his book about heat and mass transfer, he stood, walking to the aisle where he's seen the guy. it's more of his curiosity that's driving him to walk over and investigate. this is new blood, a new face, a new ally.

he looks up and he sees they're in the history section and wonwoo just almost hisses. flashbacks of him decomposing in high school because of a quiz jogs through his memory and he visibly shudders.

wonwoo sees a boy sitting by the farthest corner, desk lamp lit up and book holder jolted up. beside it were a bunch of books, some thin, some thick, and one unbelievably thick. the boy has soft, features, eyes that concentrated on the small words, nimble hands that wrote down on his notes, and an entrapping slope of a nose that held his framed glasses. shadows slid down his profile as the dark night enveloped the sky, his nose was the highlight of his face. and the librarian thinks he can possibly compute the angle of that nose.

he catches himself and slams his spine against the shelf (albeit quietly), and he was paralleling the other spines that are upright in between the shelves. he scrunches his nose and fixes his own glasses on his nose bridge then thinks back, talking incredibly loud in his head.

_"were you just about to compute that boy's nose?"_

_"you look like a stalker, jeon wonwoo."_

_"from the front desk to the history section real quick, i see."_

_"is this love at first sight?"_

the last line came out with an external exhale. it's been a while since he admitted this to himself. but this might just actually be his first crush in six years.

jeon wonwoo had high standards. tall, studious, intelligent, aromatic, likes history.

wait.

he shook his head then immediately cantered back to his desk, willing the image of a certain golden boy that basked in the orange glow of a lamp away from his mind.

"the time rate of heat transfer through a material is proportional to the negative gradient in the temperature and to the area," wonwoo noted, burning the words to mind as he cannot seem to get past fourier's law.

he groaned quietly then rested (more like slammed out of his frustration because of his instant crush) his head against the desk, green pen settled on the middle of his notebook lightly going askew from the impact.

  
\---

  
"so, you're in love?" seokmin slowly speaks after a pregnant air was filled between the four of them in the doughnut shop. seokmin had his head tilted to the side, his hand is slowly raising up to his mouth with his fork and a cut of blueberry doughnut in tow.

"let's be reasonable here," jihoon exhaled. "you met the guy, what, two days ago? and you don't even know his name, and you're," he paused, "in love?"

seungkwan was absolutely riveted with the story, being the biggest human incarnation of mush and mallows. "it's destiny."

jihoon, being the voice of reason, just shook his head. while seokmin was just there, eating his donuts and sipping his coffee. he was more of the emotional pillow of the group. he's a good friend and wonwoo likes having him around as the neutral face.

the boy who liked history has been in wonwoo's mind ever since their first encounter. well, rather, his first encounter with him. he has been thinking about the line of his nose, the angle it created against the lamp's glow. he's been wondering if the angle would change against sunlight, or moonlight, or up close. thinking back, the slope of the boy's shoulders seems like another interesting equation he would like to get his hands on.

oh wait, he's with friends.

_"nice thoughts, jeon wonwoo, nice thoughts."_

"maybe he's the one at the end of my red string, you know," wonwoo shrugged, talking quietly since jihoon was boring holes into his skull. seungwkan cooed at this and seokmin simply smiled his supportive smile at his friend.

  
\---

  
he is in the library, about to nod and doze off from doing his homework when a voice snaps him out of his inattention. he gathered himself then looked up from his scribbles that said "friction losses" and looked at the boy he has been thinking about.

a small paper broke the barrier between him and the boy, the familiar red gel ink was on the paper and it was a request for a book. wonwoo stood up and looked at the guy who was at least a couple inches taller than him, who had jet black hair, who had a pair of eyeglasses tucked inside the shirt's front pocket, who had golden skin, who smelled like peach honey.

he took the paper and read the code for the book. another history book. poor boy probably couldn't find it on the shelves because it was just returned to the desk, so he had to talk to the librarian. wonwoo moved a bit slowly, so he couldn't shuffle and throw books around, and calmly handed the book to the boy. wonwoo's made up spiel slipped from his lips quietly, "please follow the code and return it to the shelf, if not you can always return it to me."

"sure," the boy smiled, but not at wonwoo. the boy was smiling at the book, grinning ear to ear before making his way back to his favorite spot.

wonwoo slumped down on his chair, wishing to the constellations to be reincarnated into a tree just so his little puppy love would look at him just like that. a look so full of adoration and contentment, like he was the most winsome of them all. his heart was filled to the brim with the utmost jealousy.

all because of a book.

  
\---

  
summer rolls in and wonwoo decides to stay at his dorm for the duration of the season. he still doesn't have the heart to face his folks with his failure, even though they have told him time and time again that it was okay, and that he can do better.

besides, summer was the perfect time to drown in his little sanctuary. this season had very little students visiting the library compared to a regular academic year. he could focus on his readings while waiting for the subject announcement for this year's upcoming quiz bee; the advisory would usually roll in around the second week of summer.

just as he was about to open up one of his varied notes on compressible flow, and agitation and mixing fluids' theories, another small paper was reached out to him. the recognizable red ink was on the paper and it was another request for a book. he looked up and the sun was ashamed.

the boy was standing there, holding out a small piece of paper. the rays of sun seeping into the somber library bounced and vibrated off the boy as he spoke, "can you help me find this book?"

"sure," wonwoo squeaked and stood up, taking the paper hastily and looked into the new pile of books that were just returned. he immediately found the book that the boy was looking for. (really, he just took his chances by looking at the thickest and oldest-looking book) "here," wonwoo smiled, hoping his cheeks aren't as red as he thinks they are.

the boy smiled, at wonwoo this time, after taking the book. "thank you," he then handed the librarian another small piece of paper.

and before wonwoo could check the pile, he realized that the red ink had the boy's name, number, a nearby cafe and time.

  
\---

  
wonwoo showed up at the cafe, and it was the best three hours of his life.

mingyu is a history major (no surprise there), mingyu is an only child but has four dogs, mingyu is a year his junior, mingyu transferred to seoul from gyeonggi-do because his parents relocated, mingyu smells more like peach honey up close, mingyu only wears his reading glasses because 'damn history books' fonts are way too small', mingyu likes the cuss word 'damn' a lot, mingyu has the prettiest set of teeth he has ever seen, mingyu makes wonwoo want to write his thesis about him.

 

\---

 

the decision is in and it was like a twisted game of luck for wonwoo. he has found the perfect, absolutely perfect, man who loved a subject he abhorred while the quiz bee subject this year will revolve on history. oh well, it seems like he will drop out of this bi-annual's quiz bee.

he texts mingyu his thoughts and his failed dreams.

they've been texting since the day they separated at the cafe.

  
\---

  
wonwoo's desk at the library's front desk now had two chairs and two distinctly different stacks of books. one stack was riddled with equations and theories and elements while the other was filled with dates and war and important people.

mingyu has been tutoring wonwoo for a span of two months now, with only one month away from the quiz bee. wonwoo can pick up dates but he really needs jogs in his memory from time to time.

recently, mingyu figured out that there was a better way for wonwoo to remember.

the first time mingyu kissed wonwoo they were talking about the year 776BC, the start of the olympic games in honor of zeus. and when wonwoo said he wanted to remember when the romans conquered the greeks at 146BC, a student interrupted them by asking for the aisle and floor where the law books can be found.

until now, wonwoo cannot, for the life of him, remember the date even though mingyu keeps repeating the answer.

usually those kinds of studies occurred outside the library after that incident.

and wonwoo has that logged into his mental schedule every tuesdays, thursdays, and saturdays.

 

\---

  
mingyu kissed wonwoo three times right below his ear to remind the older that ramses the second was the third egyptian pharaoh, and it was under his rule when the famous pyramids of giza's first bricks were laid.

wonwoo was tracing numbers mingyu's palm when the aspiring history professor talked about the bubonic plague. wonwoo noted how he felt mingyu's hurt through his eyeglasses as he talked about the, approximate, seventy-five million people that perished.

"knowledge, art, culture," mingyu whispered, popping one button after another from wonwoo's cardigan, when they were talking about the renaissance and the three rebirths during that era. wonwoo visibly shuddered, while internally thanking his lucky stars that he wore his trusty grey cardigan.

and it was the second saturday of their study sessions when mingyu had closed the spaces between his and wonwoo's lips for their first (official, long) kiss; the grey cardigan thrown aside, forgotten for the moment, but already a part of their history together. a second, third, and fourth kiss followed quickly after.

  
\---

  
wonwoo had his nose buried deep in brightly colored index cards right before the competition and his heart was through the roof. he shouldn't have convinced mingyu to buy him an iced coffee, it was doing him no good.

the buzzer rang and wonwoo surrendered his cards to the officials before seating beside his partner from another program.

"what are these three notable rebirths that happened during the renaissance period?" the screen flashed, taunting, but wonwoo was unfazed and was the first to ring the bell.

  
\---

  
mingyu met wonwoo when he stepped down the stage, smiling widely at the silver medal that his favorite librarian won.

"looks like we won't need another study session after this," the taller one mulled, clinking at the medal.

"oh, we'll be having sessions," wonwoo nodded followed by a soft, yet smug expression, "just not of the studying sorts."

mingyu could only laugh, orotund and tinkling at the same time. he placed a kiss on wonwoo's forehead and nodded. "no more distractions, then," he winked, and wonwoo's subconscious tumbled over at the implications, already clearing the laid out schedule he has in his head.


End file.
